He looks up from where he's been watching anime with his head on Tōkan's lap at Tōkan's face. "?"

So cute.

"I'd... like you to meet someone."

"?"

"You... don't remember Subaru, do you?"

"Nope."

"He's my best friend, at school. He came with me the night you and I met."

"Was he one of the asshole rapists?"

"No! Fuck those two. He has as far as I know never raped anyone."

"He want a prize for that?"

"That's not—" Sigh. "Focus, Inori-kun. I'd like you to meet him."

"...why?"

"...well, he's important to me, and I'd like you two to get along. And you two are the closest people to me that I am fucking."

"I'm not gonna fuck him."

"Wasn't expecting you to!"

"What's so special about this dude anyway?"

"We've... been friends for for over ten years. And he, ah, has kind of been in love with me for the majority of those years."

"Didn't you say you'd never been in love before?"

"I hadn't. I don't reciprocate his feelings."

"Oh." He turns back to the wall where Tōkan's projector is playing the anime. "Sucks to be him."

Tōkan smiles a little bit. It's only been another month since Suzume's birthday when they started officially dating and Inori's only had one short heat in this meanwhile but he's been reasonably enthusiastic about fucking outside his heats. And it's a lot easier to be more inventive without both of them under the pressure of hormones driving them crazy.

But most relevantly, Inori is extremely clingy and Tōkan is still not over that and melts a little every time he's adorable like this. Lying on his lap, saying things like that, clinging onto him in bed, such small things but they all add up to feeling very loved and even thinking about it right now is giving him butterflies again as he runs his finger through Inori's hair. He's so much less guarded like this, so much less angry, and Tōkan thinks it's maybe silly of him to not have said he's in love. He clearly is.

"Hey. Tōkan-kun."

"Yes?"

"I'm tired of watching this. Get your cock out I wanna practise sucking it some more."

Not that he's waiting for permission, he just cancels the prompt by the TV to play the next episode then turns over and starts undoing Tōkan's zipper.

Case in point.

And Tōkan's got it down bad because he's already eighty percent of the way up by the time Inori manages to free his penis from his underwear. Not fast enough for Inori, though, based on the exasperated sigh he lets out and the way he starts immediately trying to get Tōkan harder as quickly as he can.

Inori himself is entirely nude, since they were going to be in bed until sleep, but Tōkan knows that if he does that himself he's just going to get distractedly horny all the time, which somehow is not an issue for his boyfriend. But most importantly, it means he has easy access to Inori's ass and he can play with it some more while Inori "practises".

"Okay we've met, was that all?"

Subaru scoffs.

Tōkan laughs and shakes his head.

"Sorry, let me... Subaru, you know what could work here? Is if you two had a fight."

    "—what? I'm not going to get down to the level of this simpleton."

"And who the fuck are you calling a simpleton, you dickhead alpha?"

"Someone who wasn't a simpleton wouldn't need me to explain it, now, would they?"

    "You wanna take this outside?"

"I literally just said I'm not getting down to your level, but I guess it's too much to expect of a low-life omega to be possessed of simple skills like 'remembering the last sentence'. Was this sentence too long, by the way? I can try shorter ones. You dumb. You bad for Tōkan."

    "You know shit about me and Tōkan and you better keep your mouth shut or I'll shut it for you."

Sigh. "Clearly you're incapable of any kinds of more sophisticated conflict resolution than using your fists."

(This is working better than he'd expected honestly.)

The waiter comes over, looking a little bit wary of the two teenagers exchanging insults, but Tōkan says, "A double strawberry milkshake for me and him, please," pointing at Inori with his head.

    "I'll have a lime ice tea, thank you," says Subaru, shifting gears completely from venomous to perfectly polite.

    But then he looks back at Inori. "And of course you have no idea how to even get someone for yourself without cheating with your pheromones."

"You're so pathetic."

    "Excuse me?"

"Everything for you is just alpha this omega that..."

    "You were the one who called me a dickhead alpha!"

"That's just an insult, it doesn't count."

    "Keep telling yourself that."

"I will, 'cause insults or no at least I don't get jealous of someone just because of their sex."

"Your brain may be too small for you to understand how likely it is that Tōkan will abandon you for someone else once he gets bored of sweet omega ass."

    "If he gets tired of me then yeah he should leave me, why would I want to tie him down if I make him unhappy?"

Subaru... doesn't really have an answer to that.

    "Pathetic, like I said. Stop getting so hung up on gender bullshit, it's like you haven't met him, he's going to fuck anything with a hole."

"Hey!"

    "He's not wrong, you know," says Subaru.

"Yeah but he doesn't need to say it in public."

"Oh please, as if you weren't like a peacock about it, it's like your whole identity is tied up on being a hexsexual hoe."

    Subaru laughts despite himself then clamps a hand on his lips and glares at Inori.

"Some of my identity is also tied up on getting my boyfriend and my best friend to get along by making them fight and then nudging them in the right directions."

    "Boyfriend?"

"He didn't tell you? How's that for a best friend then?"

"Tōkan you cannot be serious."

    "I am."

Subaru's face crumples. "Wh-why? What does he have that I don't? It's just because he's an omega, isn't it, I just can't even compete. If your mum—"

"Shut the fuck up you asshole! That's what I mean, everything is alphas and omegas for you, he's not allowed to just be himself and I can't just be myself, he has to be with me because I'm an omega, no other reason. Really? You claim to have been his best friend for ten years and you think that little of him?"

    "...I—"

"Look at yourself in the mirror a little bit, bitch. Do you have any personality whatsoever other than just being a shitty alpha? Can you find it? I'll wait."

    "I—I—"

"Maybe if you stopped making everything about gender you'd have a better chance. Or maybe not! People don't owe you being with you just because you're 'in love' with them! People are just people!"

    Subaru turns a pathetic little face at Tōkan. "Is—that how you feel? Do—do you think I have no personality, do I just, just make everything about gender?"

"Oh, Subaru..."

Okay this is maybe not going exactly as planned but it's still not entirely derailed, it can be salvaged. He'll trust in his boyfriend.

"What does it matter how he feels about that? Do you want to make your personality about him rather than gender, then? Get your own!"

    "I do have a personality!"

"News to me! Everything you've said so far has been about gender or class or social status or stupid insults, you haven't said anything about me or about you even once! You have no idea who I am! I'm just a bitchy angry violent omega in your head and you haven't spent a single minute trying to figure out what your supposed best friend sees in me because you're too busy trying to make it all about this weird story in your head about the place for omegas and alphas and rich people and poor people and whatever the fuck else! I'm not even poor you're just a little spoiled coddled baby who thinks anyone whose family doesn't own a yacht must be begging for food!"

...wow. Holy shit. Tōkan was not expecting that... many words. Maybe he should've, that kind of is Inori's special interest (anyone who says this omega isn't autistic is delusional). That and martial arts.

Still, this seems... promising? It seems promising. He'll look a little bit regretful and contrite now while Subaru gets all meek and quiet and Inori sulks while playing on his phone until their drinks arrive.

Which they do after a few minutes of glacial silence. Tōkan and Inori's milkshake comes with two straws and Subaru does a double take when Inori lowers his mask before being back to his sad self and starts drinking his iced tea.

The icy silence extends until they are done with their drinks, at which point Subaru says, without lifting his gaze, "I apologise, Yamada."

Inori looks at him suspiciously. "Why?"

    "You're... right. I was making... assumptions... and it was petty and immature."

"Well I don't give a shit. People apologising pisses me off, and if you want an apology from me you'll be waiting here forever." Subaru finally looks up at him in shock, as if he hadn't expected that social script to get broken today. "What? Just fucking do better if you care so much. Or don't. No skin off my back. You talk too much."

    Subaru goes quiet again for a few minutes then stands up and says, "I'd better go. I'm... sorry, Tōkan. I'll catch up with you later." And he flees before anyone can say anything.

"Hmm. Seven out of ten, has room for improvement but overall a success."

Inori peers at his boyfriend. "I don't understand you."

"It's more about understanding him. But I think you'd get really angry right now if I went into detail about Subaru's psychology."

"Yeah." He scans the QR code attached to the table and goes through various items in the menu. "I want a triple bacon burger with extra mayo and cheese and large fries and onion rings."

"Your wish is my command, my prince."

"...I'm not a prince."

As the filthy rich heir of the filthy rich Kokonoe family Tōkan doesn't even register having to pay for this stuff and is happy to treat Inori to whatever he wants. Boy burns through calories like crazy anyway, it's like he has a black hole for a stomach. Not that Tōkan has much of a leg to stand on there, between sports and weightlifting and getting into fights he's also a calorie black hole and doesn't get fat either.

Still, Inori is something else. After they're done with lunch he wants to go somewhere to get ice cream, even though Tōkan feels like there is no way physics could allow him to stuff more food into himself, but sure, it's a cute date activity anyway.

Inori is tapping away at some mindless game on his phone with one hand while using the other to hold Tōkan's hand on the way to the ice cream parlour when he suddenly freezes and doubles over, dropping his phone.

"—Inori? Inori-kun, what's—oh." What a fucking time for the heat to hit him, shit. "Come on, I'll take you home, here..." He crouches down to grab Inori's phone but when he's back up he sees... a familiar face.

He looks around.

That's eight familiar faces now.

"Oh no."

    "Yamada! Long time no see! With your boyfriend again? Don't think you're running this time."

Inori looks up at the person who said that and grabs his lead pipe from the ground, as he'd also dropped it when the heat hit him.

"You're all pathetic and I am going to fucking kill you."

"Still not confident you can take us in a fair fight, huh?" Tōkan straightens up. "Fine, then. You wanna dance? Let's dance."

Inori straightens up, too, and his grip tightens on the pipe—

(I want an alpha I want an alpha I want an alpha)

—dodge a punch, use the momentum to push his assailant away—

(that guy smells so nice he's not even in heat and his pheromones are delicious)

—jump over an outstretched leg and elbow that girl in the back of her head—

(bet her dick's huge, it'd fill me up nicely)

—trip her just to be on the safe side—

(I want Tōkan)

—oh. He does. He does want Tōkan.

This moment of distraction is enough for one beta to kick him in the stomach hard enough that he drops his pipe again and an for alpha to hold him still.

    "You're gonna be my punchbag today," says the beta.

"Inori!" Tōkan dodges two blows and rolls out of the way of a high kick then dashes towards Inori.

(I want him I want him I want him)

His strength is all gone, his fighting spirit is all gone, all his heat-addled brain wants right now is his boyfriend, his alpha, his Tōkan...

Tōkan rolls out of the way of two other people and kicks that one beta in the solar plexus hard enough that he drops Inori's pipe (which he'd grabbed after the alpha started holding Inori) and Tōkan can grab it himself.

His stance smoothly shifts to one of armed combat and the other six (minus the beta, still doubled over in pain, and the alpha holding Inori) surround him. "Six versus one! Come on! Come at me!"

They do.

Tōkan is good. Tōkan is very good. And the pipe helps. But Tōkan is not good enough to fend six people off on his own.

Inori is. Should be. But now he's immobilised by some shitty alpha and she keeps whispering bullshit into his ear, about how nice he smells, how much she wants to fuck him, tie his pretty arms up and put her dick up his pussy all the way to the hilt. "You're gonna beg, little brat, you're gonna beg for my cock," she purrs. "But I won't be the only one. We'll take turns. It'll be delicious."

Disgusting disgusting disgusting—Tōkan is getting beat up, dishing it out but still getting beat up, and here he is, fragile, weak, defenceless, feeling a stupid alpha's dick pressed against him while she keeps being an absolute garbage human as she watches all of her "friends" trash his boyfriend.

No.

"Fuck. You."

He headbutts her with the back of his skull then shoves one foot between her legs to knock her off-balance and twist so that he falls right onto her and knocks the wind out of her in the process. He jumps to his feet, gives her a kick for good measure, and then gives that one beta another kick so he'll stay down.

"HEY ASSHOLES! YOU'RE FIGHTING TWO PEOPLE!"

Tōkan was having trouble keeping track of all that was going on, focusing too much on making sure nothing vital gets damaged. He dropped the lead pipe at some point but rather than pick it up and use it against him the six kicked it away from his reach.

Too bad for them.

This defenceless omega knows how to use it much better than they would. Two of them are down before the group even realises what's happening, and with the crook of his pipe he pulls someone's knee out from under them then twists the pipe around to swing it full force on their arm while they're falling.

There's a loud crack, and they scream.

Tōkan is quick enough to break free and join his boyfriend. Back to back. "This is kinda hot," he tells Inori.

"Stop distracting me, dickhead."

But he's not so distracted as to lose the fight. They coordinate surprisingly well for people who have never done this together before, and every time Inori catches sight of Tōkan he sees the quickly-purpling bruises and the cuts and blood and this fires him up even hotter.

The group never stood a chance, really.

It doesn't take even half a minute for the two of them to be standing in the middle of a ring of moaning, battered people, panting hard and soaked through with sweat. Both of them are hurt, and Tōkan thinks he might have sprained one of his hands, but he's still too full of adrenaline to feel it.

"Let's leave."

Inori nods wordlessly and they quickly find their way to an alleyway somewhere.

At which point he lowers his mask and turns to look at Tōkan. "Fuck me. Please. Please I need to get—that disgusting—I need her voice out of my head, I need yours—"

Tōkan suspected Inori was going to ask for something like that. And besides, getting into an 8v2 fight and winning it while his boyfriend is right there glowing like a light with heat has got his rockers going at full power.

He grabs Inori by the shoulders and pushes him towards the nearest wall, then kisses him while he's doing his best to get rid of Inori's shorts with only one hand; the other is too busy pulling Inori's hair.

He's kind of offline right now, really, all his ability to can went into saving his boyfriend and kicking those guys' asses. He's sure Tōkan can figure stuff out, so all he needs to do right now is moan pitifully and grind against Tōkan, which of course makes Tōkan's job of getting rid of his clothes all the harder but Inori does not care.

Shorts are, thankfully, easy, and Tōkan himself has his trousers down in two seconds—after he grabs the pack of condoms and tears one open. He's already full mast but not knotting yet, so it's not that hard to put the condom on.

Inori whines more when Tōkan pulls away to deal with the condom, and the little disgusting voice inside him is saying no, no, don't put that on, fill me up, I want to have your cum in me...

...they're boyfriends. Maybe he can just... say that?

"Tōkan-kun, d-don't. I—I want—I want you to come in me, I want to get filled up again like, like our first time, I wanna feel all of you here—"

"—but you could get—"

"I don't care I'll take a pill later I'll take ten pills please—"

Tōkan is probably literally incapable of resisting Inori when he begs like that, now. He tosses the already-opened condom aside then pulls Inori up to hold him by the legs and finds his way to Inori's (sopping wet) entrance.

He gasps in surprise when he's so easily lifted up but fuck that's hot. He wraps his arms around Tōkan's neck and buries his face in Tōkan's shoulder so he can whine some more into his skin.

The front of Tōkan's shirt is going to get full of precum but if Tōkan didn't want that he shouldn't have picked this position.

He accepts the consequences of his actions. Right now he's just thinking Inori, my Inori, my love, I love you, I love you so much, I need you while he tries to muster enough concentration to guide his dick into his boyfriend.

Then he gets it in and all but slams Inori down onto his hip.

Inori cries out in pain and pleasure and is honestly too far gone to do anything but cling and cry and feebly move his waist in half-hearted humps.

Tōkan can source all of the necessary humps, here; he can lead this whole parade. "Inori, Inori, Inori," he moans, again and again and again, barely sensate. "My Inori, mine mine mine, all mine, fuck—"

"Oh, oh, oh, yes, Tōkan-kun, I'm yours, all yours, oh—"

Which is the most Tōkan can get right now in terms of coherence from Inori.

Inori comes before Tōkan does, and Tōkan's shirt is absolutely, completely ruined, now, between the sweat and the blood and the dirt and the cum. But he doesn't care, he doesn't care, all he wants is his Inori, his Inori.

He comes, and comes, and comes, and it's Inori's name on his lips when he does, a long cry of it, followed by a faded, "I love you, I love you so much, Inori, my Inori," which, whoops, maybe not the most appropriate time to say that but he's not really in a condition to give a shit.

They keep going for a bit still, and Tōkan comes once more while Inori comes three times, but eventually both Tōkan's knot and Inori's heat subside enough that they're left standing there, panting, Tōkan still inside Inori but slowly getting soft again. At some point they shifted positions so that Tōkan was behind Inori and Inori was facing the wall (and Inori moaned loud enough on Tōkan's way out and then back in with his knot that he's pretty sure the whole block must've heard it), but now all they're doing is holding themselves up, holding onto what little stability their shaky legs still have.

But he doesn't want to be out here, exposed to the elements, any longer, especially now that his post-heat clarity is being very clear about what they just did.

"We should go to my place."

"...I, uh, I don't think I can face your parents with my T-shirt like this."

Inori turns around, letting Tōkan's cock flop the rest of the way out of him, to look at Tōkan's shirt then at his face. "What's wrong with it? I've come home with dirty T-shirts before."

"It's caked with your cum, love."

"So?"

"...Inori-kun, Harutsugu is going to skin me alive if I arrive at your place while I'm looking like this."

"Take it off, then."

"—getting there shirtless is not much better!"

He looks down at Tōkan's legs then back up at his face. "Worse than going there bottomless?"

Tōkan rolls his eyes. "My pants are fine."

"How do you even manage to not just break out of your pants with that thing between your legs anyway?"

—he starts giggling. "Very good fabric. Alphas and our cocks aren't a new problem."

Inori goes for his underwear and shorts and starts putting them on. "Is every alpha that big?"

"...I'm above average by a reasonable amount but not, like, incredibly exceptional or anything. Have you never watched porn with alphas in it?"

"I don't watch porn."

Tōkan's pants are still around his ankles so he has an easier time putting them back on.

"No porn? Not at all? Never?"

"I don't need it. I've always dealt with my heat using my fighting spirit." Then he looks over his shoulder and flushes a bit. "And your help now, I guess."

"Well, I'm sorry if I've ruined you for other alphas, now."

This goes completely over Inori's head. "Other alphas? I'm not going to fuck other alphas. I already have you."

Inori is saying cute romantic things casually agaaaaaaainnnnnnnnn Tōkan's heart is going to meeeeeeeelt.

"Well, if you ever did want to fuck another alpha or even date them or whatever, you can."

Inori turns around to fully face him. "I can? The fuck you think you are to tell me what I can or can't do? I'm gonna fuck whoever I want and you've got nothing to do with that."

He grabs his lead pipe and starts stalking away, fuming.

"—that's not what I meant! Inori-kun!" He finishes zipping up and jogs after him. "I just meant I wouldn't feel jealous or, or anything. And I'll support you in whatever makes you happy."

"It's your problem if you get jealous, not mine."

Tōkan sighs and decides to drop it. No reason to argue the principle of it when in practice it will just actually not be an issue.

"Where are you going?"

"Home. Don't care if you come or not."

Yamada Inori is a terrible liar and furthermore Tōkan is head over heels for him.

"...I'll just get rid of my shirt," he decides, then takes it off and bins it.

Inori is a bad liar, and he is also bad at pretending he doesn't like the view.

And Tōkan does not care to pretend he didn't notice.

"You know you have free access to all of this whenever you want."

He turns away and looks straight ahead. "Yes."

He loves loves loves looooooooves Inori.

    When they get to Inori's house Kuroji comes to greet them at the door and gets immediately worried when he sees the state they're in. "Inori-kun? Tōkan-kun? What happened?"

"Heat. Got ambushed by eight. Kicked their asses. Fucked Tōkan."

What was even the POINT of getting rid of his shirt if Inori was going to just SAY THAT ANYWAY.

"—I think he might have a concussion," Tōkan adds rather than interact with that last sentence.

   Kuroji also pretends he did not hear that last sentence and immediately goes to check Inori's head wound. "I'll get you ice, you should take a bath and wash all of that, and I have some skin creams—"

"Stop fussing, Kuroji."

        "😊 Is that my beloved son I heeeeeewhat happened? 😱" calls Harutsugu, coming from the kitchen wearing a baking apron.

    "Inori got in heat in public and they were attacked by eight people." He also does not mention that last sentence to Harutsugu because he knows exactly what Harutsugu would do about it.

        "😰 Oh Inori-kun, why don't you just take the suppressants—"

"I'm going to go take a bath," Inori declares before stalking upstairs.

Wellllllll this is awkward.

        "Are you hurt, Tōkan-kun?" asks Harutsugu. "Do you need anything for the pain?"

"I'm fine, I've had worse." WHY IS HE SHIRTLESS IN FRONT OF INORI'S DADS THIS IS NOT GREAT. "Um, do you have a shirt I could borrow? I'll give it back, it's just that mine got a little bit ruined..." He does not need to say how or what, let them draw their conclusions.

        "You can borrow one of mine, Inori-kun's and Kuroji's would definitely not fit you. 😔"

    "Do you not want to join Inori in the bath, Tōkan?" suggests Kuroji.

        "WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, KUROJI! They cannot be together like th-th-that! 😱" wails Harutsugu.

    "He has a much better shot at actually getting Inori-kun to look after his wounds than either of us do, Haru," Kuroji snaps.

        "But but but but but—"

    "Stop bothering Tōkan, Harutsugu!" Sigh. He bows to Tōkan. "Feel free to make yourself at home. Harutsugu will go fetch a fresh set of clothes for you to borrow, and we're baking cookies if the two of you would like to have tea with us."

"Oookay! I'll, uh, yeah." He goes upstairs before Harutsugu can decide to have more opinions about Tōkan.

Inori opens the door once Tōkan knocks, confused for a moment before he recognises him. "Oh. It's you." And that's that, back to the bath.

It's a pretty spacious bathtub.

Tōkan joins him shortly and sits right beside him in the tub.

"...why are you here? There's a lot of space."

"I like being close to you."

"It's hard to get cleaned up with you this close."

"I also want to check up on you and make sure you're not too badly hurt."

"Stop fussing, you're as bad as Kuroji."

"Well, we're very invested in you staying healthy. Although I do admit your scars look really sexy."

He lifts a hand to touch his lip scar. "...sexy?" Then he shakes his head. "They show weakness."

Is that why the mask?

"They show strength. They show you survived, you won against whoever gave you them. You're very powerful."

So cute.

"So, let me check you over, I wanna make sure nothing'll need stitches or antibiotics. And does anything particularly hurt? Thought I might've sprained my hand earlier but it feels fine now."

"Nothing hurts. You fuss too much."

But he lets Tōkan inspect him. He's less beat up than Tōkan himself, he was immobilised for half the fight, and nothing looks serious.

Tōkan himself notices that there's a gash on his own shoulder and a cut on his ankle that were being kept sealed by mud and which start bleeding somewhat freely once he cleans them up, but there's gauze in one of the cupboards in the bathroom which Inori wordlessly gives him to stop the bleeding before they get Harutsugu to stitch him up.

"He's used to it. He's done it a lot for me."

"I guess this kind of ruins my plans to get a quickie in with you before we go down for cookies."

"—there's cookies? Say so earlier, dumb alpha."

He's already pretty much done so he jumps out of the tub and starts drying himself.

Tōkan is once again filled with fondness for his boyfriend.

Harutsugu left folded clothes for both of them by the bathroom door, and yeah this is Harutsugu's T-shirt but they all use the same fabric softener so he's got the scent associated with Inori which gets him into an even better mood. He replaces the gauze and follows Inori downstairs.

The cookies aren't yet done, so Inori feels betrayed twice over, but when he sees Tōkan walk into the dining room/kitchen he looks at his alpha dad and says, "Haru, Tōkan needs some stitches."

        "Oh! I didn't realise it got that bad, let me grab my kit."

"You're very casual about this."

    "The number of times he's arrived home looking just as bad as this, if not worse..." sighs Kuroji.

        "He takes after you~! 😘" Harutsugu calls from the other room, and Kuroji flushes a bit.

    "I was never this bad!"

            "Haru told me some stories that are pretty bad," says Suzume as she skips into the room in a pink dress. "Hi, Tōkan~!"

"Hey, Suzu. How are you doing at school?"

            "Fiiiiine. You always ask that!"

"Well, I'm interested in the academic success of my pupil! It wouldn't do to help you study if you didn't use it to get great grades."

        Harutsugu shows up again with a box of supplies. "Tōkan-kun, please sit so I can take care of you."

He does as instructed and Harutsugu starts to treat his shoulder wound first, carefully.

(Inori walks over to the freezer and grabs an ice cream tube then plops down at the table to start eating directly from it with a spoon.)

(Loooooooooove~)

(Harutsugu and Kuroji both notice the way Tōkan looks at Inori and look at each other in, respectively, despair and deep fondness.)

(Tōkan notices this out of the corner of his eye but doesn't give it much attention. Watching his boyfriend be constantly adorable is very diverting.)

            "Tōkan, are you going to sleep over tonight?" Suzume asks, eyes shiny.

He opens his mouth to reply but Inori interrupts him with,

"Nah, I'm spending the night at his."

He doesn't say "You are?" because by this point Inori just basically does whatever he wants and if he wants to sleep over at Tōkan's, Tōkan is more than happy to have him.

Harutsugu and Kuroji once again exchange looks, but this time they're less immediately easy to decode. Tōkan feels like they are going to want to talk to the two of them about something.

(Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove~)

Harutsugu finishes stitching Tōkan up and tells him to go see a doctor if he starts getting a fever or anything like that, observing that alpha males are more prone to infection than the rest of the population.

"You are? Why?"

        "I think we have higher rates of immunodeficiency," explains Harutsugu. "Omegas have better immune systems, that's one of the reasons why we think your sister's a beta even though we can't fully tell yet, she's caught a lot more colds than you had by her age and you hadn't even ever caught a flu by then."

"Hm."

The cookies are done soon enough, and they all relocate to the tea room to have them. Inori, of course, continues to be an absolute black hole. Tōkan supposes they never did get that ice cream anyway.

But after they're all done (which means Harutsugu, Kuroji, Tōkan, and Suzume have had some cookies and tea while Inori inhaled everything they didn't consume) and Suzume's excused herself to go back to her room, Harutsugu says, "Tōkan-kun, Inori-kun, could you stay here for a few more minutes? There was something Kuroji and I wanted to talk to the two of you about."

"Is this gonna be boring?"

    "Probably," says Kuroji, "but it's important."

Tōkan continues kneeling and listens attentively.

    "So... you're an alpha/omega couple," starts Kuroji, rubbing a hand against the back of his head. "There are some... unique challenges to that nowadays."

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

        "How are your parents taking this, Tōkan-kun? 🤔" asks Harutsugu. "I realise we've been remiss in not asking about them all this time."

"Ah, heh, that's... a subject."

"His dad's a shitstain and his stepmum doesn't care about him," he summarises.

    "Inori!"

"Not... not entirely inaccurate," Tōkan says, and now it's his turn to scratch the back of his head awkwardly. "My biological mother was an omega, and my—my father raped her. Basically." And that was very much not what they were expecting, although Harutsugu seems less surprised than Kuroji. Figures. "She loved him, and... I think my father came to love her too, after a fashion. But he hid her, I'm sure you'll never hear anything about Kokonoe Tochima and an omega. As far as his image's concerned, his alpha wife is my mother."

        "I... see," says Harutsugu. "Your mother... was... an omega?" he asks, carefully.

"She's dead. Died when I was small. And I was raised by the man who raped her and who continually told me that alphas are superior to omegas and we should never intermingle, all my life. He got married to a woman who didn't want kids, so it was great that he'd already acquired an heir."

"Like I said. Shitstain."

This time neither of his dads berate him for it.

"So, yeah, it's hard for Kokonoe High to not have that... culture... about alphas and omegas when the headmaster and owner is like that. And I haven't told him about Inori."

    This is clearly throwing some of the conversation they had planned for a loop. "And you don't plan to...?"

"He'll hear it from the rumour mill eventually when my relationship with Inori becomes sufficiently public, although everyone at school who even knows we're seeing each other thinks I'm just..." And Tōkan has to stop himself for a second and look down at his lap so that he doesn't show just how angry this makes him feel. "Using him. For his body. For the sex."

    Harutsugu squeaks out a strangled noise but Kuroji just nods.

"Your friend thinks I just seduced you with my pheromones to bag a rich alpha or something," Inori adds, and for some reason it's Kuroji's turn to look somewhat embarrassed.

"...he doesn't. Not really. That's just a story Subaru's telling himself in his head that he knows isn't true. He knows me well enough for that."

    "I see that you already have experience with much of what we wanted to talk about," sighs Kuroji after a bit.

Tōkan honestly has so much trauma about this it's kind of tragically funny. Though if he's honest with himself Inori's existence is a very effective therapeutic treatment.

        "I guess it would be too much to hope for Kokonoe High to have gotten better since I left 😔," sighs Harutsugu.

"I... believe my grandfather is actually not as bad as my father in this respect, though we haven't had much contact. I would give it even odds that Kokonoe High might be worse, now." Also not what Harutsugu wanted to hear.

    "Then forgive me if what I'm saying will sound repetitive," says Kuroji. "This won't really get better. We're... a porn trope, to a lot of people. Alpha/omega couples. Especially with male omegas, for how rare we are. Many people won't take your relationship seriously, will think you're being immature—or that you're just sex-obsessed."

        "Kuroji!"

    "Haru, this is part of it." He looks at Tōkan again. "Waiters at restaurants are going to always expect confirmation from you, as if you need to give Inori-kun permission to get what he wants—"

"I'll kick their asses!"

    Kuroji and Harutsugu both act as if they didn't hear that. "People will feel very free to make passes at you—at both of you. If you tell them you're paired that helps, but given how many people recently have just been pairing for utility in not having to deal with heats and ruts so much, that'll do less than you expect."

Probably not the time to mention how intensely nonmonogamous the two of them are likely to be. That's a conversation for later.

"What's a pair?"

"...Inori-kun, love, did you by any chance skip your sex ed classes?" (Harutsugu once again lets out a strangled little noise when Tōkan says the word "love".)

"They're useless. I always just use fighting spirit. And now I have you. I don't need all that crap."

    Kuroji and Harutsugu sigh a synchronous "we love our son but he can be a lot sometimes" sigh and Kuroji explains: "Omegas have these glands on the nape of their necks, while alphas have this special hormone in their saliva. There's another hormone that those glands secrete while an omega is in heat, and if an alpha bites it hard enough to draw blood, then... It's like an immune reaction of sorts. The alpha's body will start producing a certain kind of antibody that'll make them substantially more tolerant to other omegas' pheromones while on the other hand they will be much more affected by the pheromones of the omega they bit; and conversely, the omega's heats will be much more subdued and often not occur at all if the omega isn't in the presence of that alpha's scent, but they'll go on overdrive around that alpha. This is usually called pairing."

        "It's meant to be used for love and romance," sighs Harutsugu with a wistful look in his eyes. "Your father and I are paired, like that. But nowadays most people just use it to manage their hormonal cycles and not have to worry about it."

    "It's a risky proposition, it's pretty common for the alpha/omega pair to start a relationship after that if they're not careful and those usually... don't go well."

        Harutsugu nods sagely. "It's like I said. If you don't do it for romance, the romance won't work for you."

"Wait, so... if Tōkan bit my neck I wouldn't need to worry about heats for the rest of my life?" Inori asks, turning to look at Tōkan with a thoughtful expression.

        "You shouldn't rush into it!!!" Harutsugu immediately interjects. "You can't undo it, and it's a very special bond, you should make sure you really love the person you're pairing, and..."

"Do it," he tells Tōkan as if he didn't hear Harutsugu at all, and Harutsugu himself looks like he's about to pass out. "I wanna pair with you."

"—Inori-kun, Harutsugu's right, we shouldn't rush into it."

"Why? It's a pain in the ass. Then I can just have fighting spirit all the time and only have heats around you and you can fuck me and we're fine." It's honestly a wonder that Harutsugu is still alive, it looks like his soul leaves his body every time Inori says anything.

"But we don't know that we're going to work out long term, we need to make sure we're, we're ready to be together and really in it for the long haul and, and that we love each other..."

"I've never been with anyone before you. And I don't wanna be with anyone other than you. This is dumb."

"...Inori. It's... I'm of a mind with Harutsugu, I... I want to do it with someone special." Or multiple someones, Tōkan will need to explain to Inori that this isn't as monogamously-binding as Kuroji made it sound. "And you're special, but I don't want to make rushed decisions while we're still young and this could be a passing fling..." It's so not a passing fling.

"You said you loved me earlier today. Didn't you? So we're fine."

He had HOPED that Inori had FAILED TO CATCH THAT but it seems like whether Inori remembers something Tōkan said during a heat episode or not depends on how much it would MAKE HIM SUFFER.

"Well... do you? Love me?" God this is awkward he does not want to have this conversation in front of Inori's dads this is SO not the time and place.

"...dunno."

Tōkan shoots Inori's dads a desperate look and they give him understanding looks. Yes, they know.

(Also, Harutsugu looks like he might be about to cry.)

"Let's talk about this later." And it is a testament to Kuroji and Harutsugu's trust in Tōkan that they seem satisfied with Tōkan's judgment.

Sigh. "Fine. Dunno what the big deal is."

    "Anyway... I suppose the warning I wanted to give you is moot." He looks at Tōkan specifically. "You've... clearly given this a lot of thought."

Tōkan smiles and nods. "Yeah, I... I guess it came out by accident, earlier," and he does not need to explain how. "I love your son. He's... he makes my life brighter and better. He makes me better. I know I'm just a teenager and we've only been together for a short while, but I guess I'm sappy like that. I want... I want to see where this is going, I want to try to make it work, I want—I want him in my life."

Inori punches him.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You're saying weird shit again."

And he's blushing hard enough he might be actually emitting light.

"...I love you so much, Inori."

Another punch.

Harutsugu looks like he wants to argue (and Tōkan's guess here is that it's something like "Didn't you say you loved him the first time we met????") but he decides against it.

    "Harutsugu may be a grump but we're both really happy," says Kuroji. "We—put on a good front, the day we first met you, Tōkan-kun, but we were scared."

        "If you were to have broken Inori's heart I would have crushed you 😊," says Harutsugu brightly, and, "Ow! 😥" now it's Kuroji's turn to punch his partner.

    "And it really warms our hearts to see this," Kuroji continues. "And I know you can't promise anything, you're young, but... it is a big relief that our little troublemaker found someone as sensible as you."

"You all talk too much," Inori grumbles with a dirty glare in Kuroji's direction.

Inori's dads insist on driving them to Tōkan's, explicitly because they're spooked by the fight they had today (even if they won) and would rather feel safe than sorry. Inori thinks this is a pain in the ass but doesn't argue much, and spends the trip quietly playing on his phone.

Also holding Tōkan's hand, which is a very recent development that Tōkan hasn't managed to get over yet.

When they get in the lift up to Tōkan's apartment he asks, "So why'd you want to come over today?"

"We can't fuck at my family's. And my heat's starting again so I want you on hand."

He's not sure if he'll ever get over how hot it is that Inori just says stuff like that like it's nothing. Or over the underlying assumptions that colour these things he says, how comfortable Inori seems to feel around Tōkan to casually assume their relationship. Which is maybe kinda stupid, that's how couples are meant to be, right, but it contrasts a lot with how nervous Tōkan himself still feels about it all.

Let's just be straight, here, he's terrified of losing Inori and acting like he needs to tiptoe between eggshells to not push him away.

When he puts it like that in his head it sounds really dumb. Inori just... isn't that fragile. If Tōkan does something he dislikes he'll just say so, and he's clearly expecting Tōkan to do the same, so if no complaints are forthcoming then everything's peachy and anxiety is pointless.

"I love you."

"...yes. You've mentioned. Many times. Why do you keep saying it?"

Tōkan laughs. "That's not how you acted when I said it last time at your parents'."

Blush. "That was different."

If he says so.

"I say it because—because you do something that fills me with it, that fills me with affection for you." Ding, out the lift and to the penthouse's door. "Because I don't have any other words to say it, I just want to—to express it, for you to know that I'm feeling full of love for you right now and that—"

But as soon as he opens the door he stops himself from speaking as he sees a man standing by the kitchen counter with a few documents spread on it.

"Father."

The man looks up from his things at Tōkan then back down. "Boy. Who's that?"

Tōkan walks in slowly but doesn't take a seat on the sofa. "This is Yamada Inori. He's my boyfriend."

(Inori on the other hand is perfectly content to flop on the couch and pull his feet onto it too, and glares at Tochima.)

Tochima turns to look at Inori. "Where are your manners, boy?"

"Lost 'em somewhere."

"What's your gender?"

"None of your fucking business."

To Tōkan: "Is this the sort of delinquent you're associating with? Some low-life omega without an inch of respect for his betters?"

Tōkan decides to walk over to Inori and sit by him then place an arm around his shoulders and put his feet on the sitting table. "I'm sure if we ever ran into a better he'd have plenty of respect for them. Haven't found one yet though."

(Inori looked like he was about to object but when he understands the veiled insult he just smirks.)

Back to his documents again. "This is not how your mother and I raised you."

"You're right! Because neither of you did raise me. My mother is dead and I raised myself while you sometimes, very rarely, vaguely existed in my presence."

"If you just want a piece of ass to get your dick wet," Tochima says, eyebrows twitching in disgust, "I can find one of better breeding."

Okay he's mad again.

"Don't worry, I'm shagging plenty of people of all sorts of social background and class and gender! I'm not very picky. Except for him, whom I'm dating, which is being pretty picky because now whoever else has a very high bar to clear."

"You are disrespectful and a disgrace to the Kokonoe name. I should stop financially supporting you."

"I'm sure that would be great for your image, disowning your heir. Unless you're planning on making a new one? Did Hana change her mind or are you sourcing one on the side? Do make sure to be quick about it, though, if you're going for an alpha to bear your new kid you're not in your prime anymore. Don't die of a heart attack, old man."

"I should teach you a lesson, boy."

"Oh, won't you, father? Come on, hit me. Get down to my level. Lower than that, even, I don't usually go to town with people who are as beat up as I am. But again, it seems like you don't care about your image so much anymore, right?"

Tochima looks sorely tempted, for a moment, but then just sighs and starts putting the documents he was messing with into his suitcase.

"Why are you even here."

"Needed to sort out some documents for the apartment and fetch some things I left here. Not that you'd ever know what that's like, responsibility is a foreign concept to you."

"Sure is! I'll worry about it when I gotta."

Tochima just closes his suitcase and makes his way to the door, slamming it behind himself without saying anything more.

And now Inori is on top of Tōkan and doing his best to make sure he can't breathe.

Tōkan laughs and pushes him away a bit. "What's this for?"

"You're so hot," he says, and he's not in heat, he knows he's not, but he can pretend, he's not wholly sure why but he currently feels unreasonably attracted to his boyfriend and Tōkan said he had free access, right? So he's using it.

Honestly, fair enough, Tōkan will stop getting in Inori's way here.

So Inori can get rid of Tōkan's shirt as well as his own for fewer barriers to snogging. What part of the snogging are shirts a barrier to? The part where skin contact good.

Trousers are more difficult to deal with but on the other hand even while soft Tōkan's cock makes Inori go crazy so the barrier isn't that much of an issue.

Forceful, control-taking Inori is kind of a huge treat, and Tōkan finds himself quickly dissolving into helpless moans and heavy breathing.

Wait no this is wrong.

Inori pushes Tōkan to reposition so Tōkan will be on top and then turns around so that his back is to Tōkan's front.

Oh. Okay.

Tōkan reaches down between them to pull his cock up and out of his trousers and let the top of it rub against Inori's back because, well, Tōkan himself loves it when people do that to him so it follows that Inori will like it too, right?

Based on the little whimper, yeah.

But Inori seems to still be in a kind of control-taking mood because he's being pretty active, pressing his back and his ass against Tōkan, leaning his head back so Tōkan can better kiss his neck and shoulders...

...positioning the nape of his neck close to Tōkan's lips...

"...wait, hang on, time out."

Whimper?

This boy uses that face like a weapon.

"Inori-kun, it's very bad to use sex to make other people do what you want."

Squirm.

This is distracting. And Tōkan seems to be unable to find it in himself to lift his weight off Inori so that it'll be less distracting.

"If you wanna be paired this is something to talk about, not to get done in the heat of the moment."

"But I want you."

"Inori-kun, you're not fair, did you know that? It's like you love pushing all my buttons."

"...I do. I like it when you want me."

"I love you, Inori. And if it's up to me we'll pair and, and get married and have a family together—"

"Then bite me!!!!"

"—I want you to love me first!"

He pauses, then turns to look over his shoulder to the limit of his current constraints. "What does that mean?"

"You said you don't know if you love me. Fair enough. But I want to know. I don't—don't want to be with you if you'll never fall in love with me, that would be... too sad. For both of us."

Inori pushes Tōkan off of him and scoots over to a corner of the sofa, hugging his knees and glaring at Tōkan.

"How am I even meant to know?"

Welp, mood truly killed. He sticks his dick back in his pants and crosses his legs, turning to face Inori.

"You just... kinda do."

"I don't! I don't know these things people 'just kinda do' know, they're weird and confusing and make no sense and I don't know them."

"...Inori, love..."

"You said it's the thing that's different between Kuroharu and your parents, right? But we're not married yet, how am I meant to know if we have that or don't! How do you know? 'You just do'?"

"...kinda. Um. I'm not sure how to explain. It's... different. Very different from other things."

"All of this is different from other things! It's all different. Which part is love?" He looks down at his feet. "Why do you love me?"

"Because... because you're great. Because you don't just accept things as they are and you fight them and you never give up. Because you're strong. Because you're smart and thoughtful under your hard angry exterior... Many reasons. I don't, don't know how to make a list."

"Well that doesn't help!"

He hops off the couch and storms off upstairs to Tōkan's room and slams the door behind him.

Aaaaaaaahhhhh he's so in love.

It is, objectively, kind of dumb to find his boyfriend being angry at him and storming off incredibly endearing, but honestly he feels like that might be a necessary requirement to date Inori. Being angry is his thing.

Tōkan decides he'll occupy his time by making something fancy for dinner, something that'll take a while. It'll give Inori time to cool off and then at the end he'll have a nice thing to eat. The way to Inori's heart is not just his stomach but it's a good shortcut, he's found.

Inori does indeed come sniffing after the meal that is almost ready, still looking somewhat grumpy.

"Hi, love."

Glare.

"Food will be ready in five minutes."

Tōkan is content to remain quiet while he does the dishes as he waits, and even hums a bit to himself.

The food is soon ready and he starts serving it on the dining table. He hangs his apron and then sits across from where he served Inori's plate. He doesn't start eating, though, and waits for Inori to come.

He walks over to the table to push his plate across it to the seat beside Tōkan's, then walks around it and takes that seat, scooting the chair close enough that he can lean his head on Tōkan's shoulder.

He wraps an arm around his boyfriend and kisses the top of his head.

Mumble mumble "it's not fair."

"What was that, love?"

"It's not fair. I didn't ask to be an omega. And if I don't take meds that make me feel awful then I become rapebait at random times.

"...I didn't tell Kuroharu. I tried suppressants a few more times after the first. They all sucked."

"Oh, love..."

"And then you tell me that you have a way to cure it, to make me never—never—to make me yours. And you won't do it."

"Inori..."

"And I have to, to pass some kind of test! Just so that I can have a fucking normal life! And you won't tell me the rules and, and, and it's so stupid, they're just hormones."

"...Inori-kun. Do you like having sex with me?"

He pulls back to stare at Tōkan. "Fuck kinda question is that? Of course I do."

"And is it just hormones then? Does it just feel like getting off, getting rid of some annoying physical need like, like sleep or something. Something you gotta do but it's not really anything special."

"..."

"'Cause it's not, for me. It's... more special than that. Not just the sex, the, the being there for you. Being close to you, holding you, being what you need, being yours. Having your trust."

"...what's your point? You're talking too much again."

"Do you wish we'd never met?"

"Stop asking stupid questions! You know the answer!"

"Yeah. So. This thing—this thing is good, it's special, it's unique. And if we get paired it'll be stronger. And I—I want to be more sure. Love we've only been together a few months. Think how many relationships end after five years together!"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Our relationship could end in five years!"

"It won't."

"It could! It's a whole commitment! So if, if we're gonna do this, I want to be very very sure that I'm not robbing you of the opportunity to have this with someone you'll actually work with, if it's not me."

"There's never been anyone!" He grits his teeth and tries to find his words. "I'm not gonna find anyone else. All alphas are shitty, I don't even know how you happened but, but no one else is gonna happen like that. To me."

"You could always be with a beta... Or even another omega."

"I don't want to!"

"Are you strictly alphasexual, then?"

"Why aren't you listening! I'm not sexual! Not with anyone! Just you!!"

"Well, and I'm a slut, maybe I'll—" But he can't actually say it. The thought of not wanting Inori is just unthinkable.

"I don't trust myself," he says, in a much lower voice, turning his gaze down to the table. "I might hurt you. I might push you away. I might mess up. I don't, don't deserve you. Not really. So, I—I want to know that you want me anyway, despite all that. Okay?"

He almost starts shouting again, that he keeps SAYING that he wants Tōkan, why doesn't he want to LISTEN, but something clicks in his head with that description and he starts cooling back down. He tries... imagining what he'd have felt like, before Tōkan, if someone told him he could mostly get rid of his heats but then he'd have extra strong ones around this one alpha he doesn't like. And he can't think how he could stop liking Tōkan—although this evening sure is an argument in a certain direction huh.

"...okay," he says, quietly. Then he leans towards Tōkan again and starts rubbing his head against Tōkan's shoulder like a cat while he gets his cutlery and starts eating.

Tōkan lets out a relieved breath. He's not sure Inori gets it, but he definitely got something. So, progress? Progress.

He lifts one hand to pet Inori with and gets to figuring out how to eat with just the other hand.